A featurette that just mysteriously appeared in La Cieca’s inbox. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/kQqPauyGiVU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
… to describe this video which, frankly, makes Wenarto‘s oeuvre look like Dirty Harry. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/MCaLDvdsKSs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The first two days of polling, 555 of you voted for your choice for the theme of this summer’s Unnatural Acts of Opera Festival. The result: a dead heat at 28% each between the two leading contenders Now comes the runoff, with you, cher public, making the final choice. The polls close Thursday at noon,…
Hunks in skimpy loincloths have long been a feature of productions of twentieth century opera, especially during the Christopher Keene era at New York City Opera. But you don’t often get to see much homoerotic action in bel canto works like Norma, more’s the pity. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sFdrWy8TzSQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] [via Barihunks]
Member of the cher public Max writes: Don’t know if you’ve gotten reports on this yet, but Jonas Kaufmann‘s Cavaradossi at the Royal Opera (May 23) was singing like I haven’t heard since young Domingo (only Domingo never had that kind of ease on top). You could feel the waves of sound from his “Vittoria”…
Legendary, lovely Evelyn Lear is a lady who knows what she wants. La Cieca hears that for a recent master class engagement, the veteran diva had only a few simple requirements: “Cups and water, and the water should not be iced; a mirror; and a box of Kleenex for when I make the students cry.”…
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/mq0mrk9c15w” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] [From the YouTube page of Regi184.]
La Cieca would not venture to say which of the many selections on the Jessye Norman – A Portrait DVD is the funniest. But this one is certainly right up there. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/8noeFpdfWcQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Also, though it’s been said before, it bears repeating:
La Cieca is being hassled mightily at her day job at Widdecomb, Gutterman, Applewhite, Bibberman and Black today, so she’s not able to post her review of Nicholas Limansky‘s lovely new biography of a certain stratospheric singer. The review should appear in the next day or so, but, in the meantime, cher public, please entertain…
La Cieca is thrilled to note that VAI have continued their series of releases from the NHK Lirica Italiana telecasts of the 1960s and 1970s. These DVDs, remastered from original broadcasts on Japanese television, preserve performances by some of the greatest Italian artists of the mid-20th century. The most recent treasure to be unearthed is…
Congratulations to Vanderdecken, was first to identify all eight singers correctly in Sanford‘s quiz. Our wandering Dutchman will have an amazon.com gift card to help him pass his next seven years at sea. So who, you ask, were our eight lovelies? Watch and learn! [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9yOB_kFHJQ0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Fiorenza Cossotto. Tichina Vaughn. Irina Arkhipova. Viorica Cortez. Elena Cernei. Big voices. Bigger hair.
Interview with Leyla Gencer in 2007. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/5q4je2G7YpE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Music video producer extraordinaire Wenarto is currently trying to get his invaluable collection of performances reinstated on YouTube following a terms of service contretemps. Pending when, as, and if the original site goes online again, Wenarto has created a new YouTube account highlighting his classical, operatic-themed and Izzycentric vids: 222Opera. Visit soon, cher public, and often!
A very young Anna Moffo sings La sonnambula. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/XuC25v_tzOA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The Royal Opera House (you know, that place with the naked buskecutioner) is looking for “budding” filmmakers to produce a 40 second long version of Romeo and Juliet. The company asks for the finished featurettes to be uploaded to the Royal Opera’s YouTube site, which is just so Web 2.0 La Cieca can hardly stand…
Obviously the snippet of Birgit Nilsson‘s singing in the Curse Quiz does not represent the great dramatic soprano at her considerable best, since it’s taken from a post-retirement gala performance. Here’s Nilsson’s Isolde at her peak in one of La Cieca’s very favorite YouTube clips, from a 1967 telecast. (It’s been posted here before, but…
La Cieca presents, in traditional YouTube format, the shocking solution to the Mystery of Isolde’s Curse. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/3StsbgcqbUE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Congratulations to Christian Ocier who recognized all 14 voices almost immediately and so is the winner of the amazon.com gift card. And thanks to all of you, cher public, for playing!
No fooling the cher public this time around: most of you guessed easily that the depicted production was Die Zauberflöte, as staged in the Bundestag subway station in Berlin. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/Lf2RNksObiw” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VX27o382fYs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
The Bonynge and Sutherland of YouTube, Wenarto and Izzy Anderson, return with a more elaborately produced version of what is rapidly becoming Izzy’s signature tune, “Nessun dorma!”
Actually this next sound clip dates back over a decade but has recently re-emerged (like the Creature From The Black Lagoon, actually) on such sites as Dial “M” for Musicology, Boing Boing and Wired. It’s a project by conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid based on an online poll of people’s likes and dislikes…
Here’s bel canto goddess Mariella Devia in fiery form for the final cabaletta from Anna Bolena earlier this month in Palermo. (Just ignore the annoying interpolated interviste.) [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/rT5cpY2qJ2c” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Recital in Tokyo, November 2007. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/kGgFU8_bpLM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
